Kakaopay Securities teams with Dinari and Ondo to explore tokenized Korean stocks

Kakaopay Securities explores putting Korean stocks onchain

Kakaopay Securities has signed separate agreements with tokenization firms Dinari and Ondo Finance to explore bringing Korean-listed stocks onchain as blockchain-based tokens and offering them to investors outside South Korea.

The agreements were announced on Tuesday and cover sourcing the underlying Korean shares, tokenization infrastructure and possible distribution abroad.

What the two partnerships cover

With Dinari, Kakaopay will run a proof of concept using Dinari's dShares model. That model is designed to preserve shareholder rights such as dividends and voting. Dinari currently offers 724 tokenized US stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) through dShares. ETFs are funds whose shares trade on exchanges.

Under the proposed model, the tokens would be backed by locally listed Korean shares rather than by tokens that only track share prices, Dinari CEO Gabe Otte told Cointelegraph.

With Ondo, the first step is to build a framework for sourcing and holding Korean-listed shares that could later be tokenized. Kakaopay would operate a foreign investor omnibus account to hold and administer the underlying shares. The companies will also research how tokens are issued and redeemed.

South Korea's regulatory shift

The partnerships come as South Korea prepares a new regulatory framework for tokenized securities. In January, the National Assembly approved amendments that recognize distributed ledgers — shared digital records — as valid securities registries and allow token securities to be issued and circulated.

In June, the Financial Services Commission linked the development of token securities infrastructure to a broader overhaul of the country's capital markets. The framework is scheduled to take effect in February 2027, and the Korea Securities Depository is developing infrastructure to connect its existing securities account system with blockchain-based data.

What is still unclear

No specific Korean-listed companies have been chosen for the proof of concept, and no public timeline has been set for commercial availability, according to Otte.

The companies also said any decision on whether or when to commercialize tokenized Korean equities will depend on legal and regulatory requirements in South Korea and overseas markets.

Why it matters

Tokenized stocks have grown in 2026, reaching about $3.2 billion in distributed value as of late September, according to data from RWA.xyz. The market remains heavily concentrated in tokenized versions of US stocks and ETFs, including shares in Strategy, Circle, Nvidia and Tesla, along with major US stock ETFs.

The companies described the opportunity as building infrastructure that can ultimately expand how Korean equities are distributed internationally while preserving the rights and protections of the underlying securities.

Sources

• Cointelegraph